The following computer-generated description may contain errors and does not represent the quality of the book:This book contains some part of the results of anthropological research carried out in the Andaman Islands in the years 1906 to 1908, under the terms of the Anthony Wilkin Studentship in Ethnology of the University of Cambridge. The funds supplied by the studentship were supplemented by grants from the Royal Society and from the government of India. In its original form the monograph was presented as a fellowship thesis at Trinity College. The work of rewriting it was interrupted by absence from England and was only completed in 1914. There has since been a long delay in publication as a result of the war.

The book deals with the social institutions of the tribes of the Great Andaman. These had previously been studied by Mr E. H. Man to whose work I have been obliged to make many references in order that my account may be as complete as possible. I should have preferred to devote my attention almost exclusively to the natives of the Little Andaman, about whom very little is known, I found, however, that it was not possible in the time at my disposal to do any satisfactory work amongst these people owing to the difficulty of language. The natives of the Little Andaman know no language but their own, and that is so little related to the languages of the Great Andaman that even a thorough knowledge of the latter is of almost no use in an attempt to learn the former. I spent nearly three months camped with natives of the Little Andaman, giving most of the time to learning their language. No one who has not actually made the attempt to learn the language of a savage people without the help of an interpreter, can form an adequate idea of the difficulties of the task.